I was really sad to see the news that Mark Paschal's injury in the State game will be career-ending. Paschal was always a bright spot on the field for us and his open letter to the UNC family made me feel a little guilty for coming down so hard on the team after their sad performance this weekend. I'm not sure if I would take anything back that I said, but maybe I'll watch the Duke game afterall, to see how the team responds.

On a lighter note, I'm looking forward to watching the finals of the Maui Invitational tonight at 10. It will be the first UNC basketball game I'll watch this season and it promises to be a classic top-ten matchup. I think Evan and Kelly will be in town by then, so it could be a fun family Thanksgiving warmup event.

This was totally unprompted.

Found these pictures while cleaning out my laptop. Brooklynne's probably going to kill me for posting this.

This was taken just before our first date. Just to be fair, I'll post a funny picture of me too.

I love how you can totally see the silhouette of my revolver. Wow, we were young then.

UNC is trying as hard as they can to throw away another season. Maybe Butch Davis will go to Tennessee and we can resume knowing we're going to lose every week instead of getting our hopes up just to be constantly beaten down with disappointment.

Doesn't anyone want to win? If we somehow come back to win now I don't even want to know.

The boycott is back on until next season.

What am I thinking about today....

1. Halleigh told me she loves me for the first time last night. It was kind of weird, so I'm not 100% sure, but I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt. Brooklynne and I had been fighting with Halleigh all day, but when we finally got her into the bath before putting her to bed, she paused to think for a moment and said, "daddy, eyewumdoooo." Think what you want, but I'm claiming it.

2. The fact that I am occasionally a nerd has been firmly established, so I'm not afraid to admit that this trailer gets me excited.

3. But before that movie comes out, I am really looking forward to this movie. Try using the keys:

• stopmotion
• buttoneyes
• moustachio
• armpithair
• puppetlove
• sweaterxxs

(thanks to Sarah Dope) Here's the actual trailer. I told Brooklynne that I wanted to read this book with her before the film comes out in February.

4. The only other movie I'm looking forward to this holiday season is the Curious Case of Benjamin Button.If you want to read the F. Scott Fitzgerald story it is bases on, I've made a copy you can download (it's out of copyright).

It's that time of year again, and Kate (my cousin who has been staying with us lately) has already come home with multiple quartz of pure heavenly goodness. She must not have noticed that I've gained 30 pounds since college.

As I was looking for a good image for this post, I ran across this recipe for spiked egg nog french toast. I think I will try this recipe Thanksgiving weekend. It just sounds too good to ignor.

You know, when I was little, we used to drink homemade egg nog made with raw eggs. What were we thinking?!!!

I've given myself a day to cool down and I think I'm ready to let this football season slip gracefully into the past. That's not to say that I'm going to give up pulling for the Heels, or that I'm going to start watching basketball instead. There's still plenty to play for--bragging rights versus State, the victory bell and self-dignity versus Duke, a ten-win season versus a second-tier Big East or SEC voe. Technically, it is still possible to win our division if Miami, VaTech, and UVA all lose again. (You can see the divisional tiebreakers after the "continue reading" break.)

But three times now, Carolina has choked up a chance to win our division in the fourth quarter of a game that we could easily have won. So I'm not writing them off, but I have come to terms with reality. At some point you have to let the dying die. So rest in peace, hopes of a conference championship. Farewell dreams of a BCS bowl. You will be missed greatly until next fall.

I don't use Facebook. I have an intense dislike for having to register/login to stuff online. I don't even check my email as much as I would like because I have to login. That's also why I would consider closing down this blog if spam got so bad I had to make people register or enter captcha responses.

That's also one reason why I never use facebook. If you requested me as a friend, and I haven't answered, its not because I don't like you, and you're not alone. I just don't like having to sign in to use it.

I know. I'm weird.

6 billion people in the world.

4 billion under the age of 40.

3,999,999,999 on Facebook.

1 me.

But for all the ways Facebook turns me off, I've found one thing that I think is worth loving in the Facebook world. The Add to Friends t-shirt. Why don't they have Add to Queue DVD cases at blockbuster? Or Add to Book List dust jackets at the library? Too cool.

Found via the Airtight Interactive Blog.

By tracking search terms like "flu symptoms," Google can predict increased flu activity, and by approximating likely IP address locations, Goolge can track the spread of the flu across regions of the world. Impressive.

 This reminds me of a historian I once met who had traced the likely path of small pox infections by mapping Catholic death and burrial records in the American southwest. I'll never cease to be amazed at the creative ways people can use information when they can get it in large doses.

(Via JoHO)

Last Friday, Brooklynne and I got to play with the Weinard kids for a few hours. Jack is one of Halleigh's favorite people in the world, so of course she took the opportunity to be funny. These pictures are not posed and there are some more after the break.

Brooklynne has been neglecting her blog, and I can't wait any longer to share a picture from our election night celebration.

I love Fritos corn chips.

Last night, Brooklynne sent me to the sore with a list:

• skim milk
• cherry tomatoes
• blueberries
• chips....

Ok, skim milk is pretty obvious. And there were no cherry tomatoes, but grape tomatoes are essentially the same thing. A blueberry is a blueberry. But when I got to "chips," I was dumbfounded. I kid you not--Kroger has no less than 437 different varieties of "chips."

So I did what any reasonable husband would do. I got two kinds. First I got some regular tortilla chips for dipping (I figured that would be a safe bet), but then I went for the gusto, and got a bag of Fritos.

Brooklynne later described Fritos as "sick" and "gross." However, I am ready to declare Fritos my number one favorite snack within the chip category. What is your favorite kind of chips?

Five thoughts from election night:

1. McCain' concession speech was one of the best things I've heard coming out of that man's mouth since his convention bump dissolved and he decided to go negative. The guy is an upright citizen who lost his way for a bit, but I believe he will truely put this election behind him and work constructively with Obama in the future.
2. Elizabeth Doles' concession speech, on the other hand, was nasty and uncalled for. (Kay Hagan got in some digs too, though, characterizing the tone of the entire campaign.)
3. I was hoping to stay up until NC was called, but I ran out of gas at about 1am. When I got up and the state was still too close to call, I was glad I gave up when I did.
4. I hope Obama gets his daughters an airedale.
5. One man does not a nation make. I think Obama knows this, but I'll be interested to see whether Obama can (or even tries) to turn his overwhelming ground game into sustained grassroots community action. That's the only way real change will happen.

I'm also curious to read Voices without Votes to see how the world is reacting.

Jimmy Clarkson, a UK journalist, has a review of a Vespa that Brooklynne and Elizabeth will love. And maybe Burly too, although I think he's breaking down after moving in almost next door to Pride of Cleveland Scooters. (Via 2SB.)

An Israeli Scooter Stamp (via 2SB).

Can anyone read what it says?

Despite the fact that I did not have the time to put into it that I probably should have, we had a good garden season this year. In fact the garden is still producing. Today, we wanted BLTs, so I went out and picked a bowl full of grape tomatoes (our regular tomatoes only had green ones on them). I also got 5 or six small bell peppers. For November, that's pretty good!

I'm planning to put up a gallery of Halloween pictures, but for now, here are a few samples. You can see some more thumbs on IMR.